art history

I really enjoyed David Leddick 's second book of "Naked Men." If you enjoyed his first Naked Men book, you will surely love this one. This new book covers the male nude from 1950 to 2000. This is a breathtaking volume of men from models and actors, to bodybuilders, dancers, and many others. The photographs are superb, showing how they looked years ago and today. It's not just all photos but also interesting essays broken down in chapters spanning 10 year periods from the days of male nude repression to today's general acceptance of male nudes.

If you're a collector of fine photography books, this is a must for your collection. Plus it's a wonderful history of the past 50 years of male nude photography.

Following "Naked Men" with "Naked Men Too" adds to the resource literature on the development of gender perception during the past century. This is an informative book (yes, there is actually material to READ as well as to see) and to this reviewer the words are better than the varying degrees of quailty in the photography and art. This book may initally appeal to the voyeur but the accompanying text is concise and very helpful in exploring the ever present question of "why is frontal male nudity such a problem for contemporary viewers?". Recommended.

David Leddick continues in this second volume of naked men what he began in NAKED MEN, PIONEERING MALE NUDES, 1935-1955, bringing us up to 2000, the year this volume was published. The genie is out of the bottle as famous and unknown men pose before many different photographers. In addition to George Platt Lynes, there are photographs here by George Dureau, Ken Duncan, Francesco Scavullo, Tom Bianchi, Robert Mapplethorpe, Greg Gorman, Harriet Liebowitz, Jim French, Pierre & Gilles, to name a few. Additionally there are drawings and/or paintings by Paul Cadmus, Michael Leonard, Don Bachardy and George Dureau. Among the famous and sometimes infamous men who bared all are Yves Saint Laurent, Rupert Everett, David Kopay, the exhibitionist Peter Berlin who apparently only photographs himself, Charlton Heston--hello!--Burt Lancaster from THE SWIMMER-- remember that 1968 movie made from a John Cheever short story?-- Peter Hinwood, whose name probably means nothing to you until you find out that he was the god Rocky Horror in ROCKY HORROR SHOW-- and Joe Dallesandro, one of Andy Warhol's superstars, who has not aged particularly well, photographed here by Scavullo. Finally we are graced by at least three porn stars: Ryan Idol; Cal Culver a/k/a Casey Donovan, who died of AIDS in 1987; and the notorious Jeff Stryker, (pp. 86-87) whose photo here is a hoot. He is demurely posed, stretched out on a flower-patterned couch with his back to the camera in the tradition of a 19th Century painting of a nude woman. (Seeing that hilarious photograph alone is worth the price of the book.)

Choosing favorite photographs is challenging. I particularly like Harriet Liebowitz's work (pp. 92-93) for her exquisite composition. Both photographs by Pierre & Gilles as always are creative and look like no other artist's work: Midnight Cowboy (pp. 98-99) and Casanova on pages 128-29. The photo of Larry Schleinz by Barry McKinley (p. 9) might have been the sexiest shot in the book had it had not been for the Romain Johnson photo by George Platt Lynes (pp. 24-25) done in 1953. It's easy to see why Leddick chose the photo of Anthony La Fauci by Dianora Niccolina (pp. 76-77) for the cover. Finally I nominate three contemporary photographs of men who have aged beautifully for the "Joy Of Aging" award: John Eddy (p. 82), Scott Wilson, (39) and Mike Helie on page 59.

Collecting these photographs and meeting the models must have been a labor of love. A great concept for a book, Mr. Leddick.